


Give and Take

by TheIcyMage



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-26
Updated: 2015-11-26
Packaged: 2018-05-03 10:12:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5286770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheIcyMage/pseuds/TheIcyMage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>First off, I want to apologize if anything doesn't fit French culture/conventions. If anything is off and you are familiar with what it acceptable in French culture, please let me know what to fix.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Give and Take

**Author's Note:**

> First off, I want to apologize if anything doesn't fit French culture/conventions. If anything is off and you are familiar with what it acceptable in French culture, please let me know what to fix.

She didn’t remember her birth mother. All she had left behind was the name Chloe and the genes to stick up to the man who never gave her what she needed and instead gave her a child she didn’t want. At least, that was what she suspected. Her father had told Chloe that her mother was greedy and would only have raised Chloe for the leverage to get what she wanted. He told Chloe that he saved her from a life of unhappiness and would buy her anything she needed to make up what her life could have been.  
Chloe didn’t remember her birth mother, but she remembered the woman who had come closest to being her mother. That woman didn’t love her father. She only took and took and never gave enough “love” in return. She had taken away her father’s time. Between going on dates and attending his mayoral duties, he had no time left to give to himself or his daughter. She had taken away her father’s happiness. He had insisted that the woman and Chloe were his happiness, but he was straining. He stopped giving Chloe as many gifts and instead gave more to that woman. When she left, she took with her everything her father had given her, and grabbed a chunk of her father’s heart on her way out the door.   
That woman had broken her father’s heart. It had taken ages for him to be as happy as he had once been. He was never in the mood to go out shopping with his daughter. During that time, Chloe vowed that she would never let anyone take that much away from her or her father.  
She did remember him. She had watched him go from a scrawny boy to a dreamy model. She remembered his tiny face flashing her that dazzling smile years before he could bring it out so easily for the camera. Part of her knew it was out of pity, but another part took pride in the fact that he had gotten so much practice off of her. It had started off as a small gesture, a tiny smile encouraging her to abandon the frown in favor of mimicking the expression. Chloe’s father had been with Girlfriend #3 at the time, and the things they were shopping for sparked no interest in the little girl. But then the boy went and stretched his smile bigger and smooshed his face with his hands and she had to giggle at the sight. This continued with every time Chloe was forgotten. By Girlfriend #6, she knew his name, Adrien, and by Girlfriend #8 they were visiting each other’s houses on play dates. More often that not, it was at Adrien’s house. The Girlfriends all seemed to favor being alone with her father in the mansion. Every time she felt lonely, it seemed, Adrien was always running to her side to cheer her up. When the funny faces turned to jokes, she couldn’t say she understood them, but she liked having him near. He, too, became someone she didn’t want to loose.  
By the time Adrien’s modeling career had taken off, Chloe had made a new friend. This time, it was a girl who enjoyed shopping trips. She was the easiest to keep. All she had to do was give a little. Well, not exactly give, but lend. It was like giving, but with less risk of loosing something. The girl gave back more than enough. Companionship, loyalty, even relief from the most taking and upsetting things, like homework. The girl had seemed so lonely when she met her. Watching her sit at the park, alone and scared and on the verge of tears, it was a kind of familiar Chloe didn’t like. Then she remembered what someone else had done for her. While she couldn’t squish up her face, it would ruin her makeup and someone else might see and honest;y, she was too old to make funny faces, but she knew one thing that would have made herself happy. She looked at the ugly top her father must have accident;y bought her. She was sure she wouldn’t miss it that much . “Hey, you look cold. Do you want to borrow this?” Chloe was halfway finished handing it to the girl when she was pulled into a tight embrace. They had been best friends ever since.   
Sometimes, she thought of how ironic it was that her determination to keep people close had led her to be like that woman. It was usually after that baker’s daughter gave her a look or made an offhand comment. She usually responded with turning her cheek like a proper lady, never, ever secretly looking for some way to draw attention to herself and maybe put that girl in her place. Usually, those times led to her taking Sabrina to an emergency shopping trip and on the way reflecting. It was true that she may look selfish or spoiled, but that was just how she knew to keep her happiness. With all said and done, she supposed it was a sort of give and take situation she had with her morality.


End file.
